Let's talk Northwoods

One of my favorites by far
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@SonnyJim - one of my Dave Shirley era Northwoods is a Queen made stockman in D2. I sent it to Bark River when I bought it and they convexed the edges for me. It's a cutting machine. - - We did a move so a lot of my stuff is in boxes in storage. One of these days after the winter snows melt, I'll have to dig it out and post pics.


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I have one of Shirley's early Scagel pocket knives, #4 I think. His dream was to reproduce existing Scagel knives in limited production one-time runs for each pattern. My knife is supposed a copy of an existing knife. In the beginning it was reported that he had bought the mark and was the only one who could use it. There was some discussion over who really made them. Shirley sometimes contradicted himself in a few interviews and some web posts sometimes saying the work was all done by him, other time saying some parts were made by others. Some people at the time claimed Queen made them, which I never really believed. As he got older, I think he had some health problems and believe things changed. Like the Scagel knives I've seen, all of Shirley's early knives had carbon steel blades, pinned construction, arrowhead shields and stag handles.

I use mine regularly and it's held up well. It's a perfect example of a somewhat crude knife, with fit/finish flaws that is easy to love :)
 
brownshoe said:
I have one of Shirley's early Scagel pocket knives, #4 I think. His dream was to reproduce existing Scagel knives in limited production one-time runs for each pattern. My knife is supposed a copy of an existing knife. In the beginning it was reported that he had bought the mark and was the only one who could use it. There was some discussion over who really made them. Shirley sometimes contradicted himself in a few interviews and some web posts sometimes saying the work was all done by him, other time saying some parts were made by others. Some people at the time claimed Queen made them, which I never really believed. As he got older, I think he had some health problems and believe things changed. Like the Scagel knives I've seen, all of Shirley's early knives had carbon steel blades, pinned construction, arrowhead shields and stag handles.

I use mine regularly and it's held up well. It's a perfect example of a somewhat crude knife, with fit/finish flaws that is easy to love :)
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At the time I bought this Shirley Northwoods stockman I probably assumed it was from Queen because of the rumors out at that time and Queen was doing D2 then. It has smooth elkhorn scales. Another one I have is in carbon steel, an early Shirley Northwoods with characterics you mentioned, with a very rustic look. It does have an oval cut out nail nick, like some Scagels. Dave Shirley was alive & running his company when I bought these.


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I've picked up these along the way.

The Bird and Trout is a Northwoods Scagel, 1095, White Tail deer with brass, fiber and leather washers. I think they made 175 of these.

The Scagel Fruitport came from KSF and I love the knife. As well made as any production knife I own. I've been on the lookout for other Northwoods Scagel folders. I like the history and simplicity of the designs.

The Northwoods Norfolk, also from KSF, is as well made as any production knife I own.

I think Derrick does the Northwoods name proud in the quality of these knives. His vision may be a little different but his passion shows in every example.

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Pointshoot777 said:
P.S. - one thing after reading your comments became clear to me. Dave Shirley wanted to make a tribute to William Scagel and his knife designs. KSF wanted to make a tribute to Dave Shirley.


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We are kind of talking about two different things.

Scagel was a knife trademark with roots to Bill Scagel and so all of the designs were tied to THAT tradition. We bought the Scagel trademark from Dave and we made quite a number of Scagel pocket knives with all of them with roots back to Scagel. A couple of years ago I sold the Scagel trademark because I didn't feel like I had the bandwidth to spearhead two different style of brands.

Northwoods is a different animal. Northwoods was started by Dave Shirley as a way to market SFOs from Queen. He mostly made tag on runs from Queen. When Queen was doing a run, he would have some blades stamped Northwoods and put fancy handles on them--he did a lot of ivory, mammoth, stag, Italian Jig bone, etc. Those knives then were packaged in a Queen box, a Northwoods sticker was applied and they were sold through a dealer network.

We bought Northwoods and I promised Dave that I would continue the tradition he had set. We have branched out by actually doing some different designs and we have worked hard to take Northwoods forward and make it even better than it was before. I have dozens of old Northwoods and we have stepped both the knives and the value.

I am very excited as we take the next step forward into Northwoods future--it is going to be awesome.

Northwoods are not for everyone. I am grateful there are people out there who love Northwoods--they allow me to build a brand doing something I care about. :)
 
okbohn said:
Northwoods is a different animal. Northwoods was started by Dave Shirley as a way to market SFOs from Queen. He mostly made tag on runs from Queen. When Queen was doing a run, he would have some blades stamped Northwoods and put fancy handles on them--he did a lot of ivory, mammoth, stag, Italian Jig bone, etc. Those knives then were packaged in a Queen box, a Northwoods sticker was applied and they were sold through a dealer network.

We bought Northwoods and I promised Dave that I would continue the tradition he had set. We have branched out by actually doing some different designs and we have worked hard to take Northwoods forward and make it even better than it was before. I have dozens of old Northwoods and we have stepped both the knives and the value.

I am very excited as we take the next step forward into Northwoods future--it is going to be awesome.

Northwoods are not for everyone. I am grateful there are people out there who love Northwoods--they allow me to build a brand doing something I care about. :)
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really appreciate the explanation, derrick!
 
Excellent, thanks Derrick ! Ya just gotta respect people who talk straight to we the customers who are passionate about knives. I've bought from KSF before and will do so again, based on that reply alone. Regards-


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Agreed. Thank you, Derrick.

Here's the only Northwoods knife I have left. It's one of the Queen made SFO's that Derrick spoke of. Northwoods Railsplitter Moose.

Dave Shirley was involved in this one along with Big Don and his son Sketch32. Made in 2009 if I'm not mistaken. This Ebony version is 1 of 25 made but there were also Stag, Elephant Ivory, and Mastodaon Ivory versions made in this SFO run.





 
I bought this Northwoods peanut from Derrick himself, in person at the KSF store, just over a year ago. I believe that this was made by Queen before Derrick acquired the brand. It's a nice little knife, and it's been set aside for my daughter who was there with me and picked it out of the display full of slipjoints.

 
Thank you my friend! I'm fortunate to have anything made of mammoth ivory and also very fortunate to have this place to share them with like minded people. -James
 
SadSappySucker said:
Derick, has there been a renewed interest in putting out any multi blade patterns in the future?
The last time I spoke with y'all on the subject was probably about a year ago.


Another Norfolk would be pretty sweet!
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We don't have any multi-blades in the works. Single blades have been so much more popular.
 
Pointshoot777 said:
@SonnyJim - one of my Dave Shirley era Northwoods is a Queen made stockman in D2. I sent it to Bark River when I bought it and they convexed the edges for me. It's a cutting machine. - - We did a move so a lot of my stuff is in boxes in storage. One of these days after the winter snows melt, I'll have to dig it out and post pics.


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One of the few slipjoints I carry is a Northwoods that I got years ago. It had some blemishes on the blade so last year at a grind in I had one of Bark River's guys put a convex edge on it after cleaning it up. It too is a cutting machine.
 
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